Universidad Industrial de Santander

The university was created by the municipal ordinance No. 83 of 22 June 1944, during the industrial boom that took place in Colombia after the II world war. After the accomplishment of several legislative and administrative developments, the university officially began its educational function the 1st of March, 1948 with 20 students. Initially only engineering degrees of Electronics, Mechanical and Chemical were offered. Later during the 1950s and 1960s were added the petroleum and metallurgical engineering as well as the school of health sciences with programs in medicine, nursing, bacteriology, nutrition, physical therapy and social work. It is the latter, which influenced the change from the European Educational Administrative Model to the American Model, causing student protests and social discomfort due to the ideas brought by the Cuban Revolution Spirit in 1959 and the criticism of the bipartisan pact of the National Front. By the 1970s, the university expanded its educative offerings to the engineering degree of systems, languages teaching, biology and Mathematics. Finally, after nearly two decades, in September 1994, the faculty of law and political science were added to become the first law program offered by a public educational institution in the north-eastern region of Colombia.

UIS has one of the higher academic outputs from Colombian universities. Since its foundation had developed innovative research in the field of engineering, basic sciences, and medicine. The Colombian Institute of Petroleum and the National Center for Research in agrarian industry and tropical medicine are part of the university. Additionally, the university has 94 research laboratories, has its own press publisher (PublicacionesUIS), and it is the main academic center associated with the Colombian Petroleum Company ECOPETROL.